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I know this might evoke some hot debate if I say camera doesn’t matter, especially for beginners. But if I tell you the following picture was taken 10+ years ago from a beginner level, cropped sensor, 10 megapixel DSLR (even iPhone these days have 12 megapixel), would that make sense?

Make the best use of the camera you have. Have the right attitude. And remember:

It’s you, the photographer, that makes a good image! Your camera is just a tool!

Instead of thinking your camera is not good enough, think of what it is best at.

If you use smartphone…

Most latest models are really great at capturing photos during harsh light, giving you this HDR effect, meaning less contrast between shadows and highlights. This is such an advantage over DSLR camera, which has higher chance to produce over-exposure and under-exposure “if” you don’t know how to operate it correctly.

But the drawback of smartphone is pretty clear: you don’t capture the depth and can’t seem to get that blurry foreground/background effect (like you see in iPhone Portrait mode that’s limited to big headshot). You have limited zoom range. When your subject is far, all you capture is a small dot on the screen. You have limited option to capture the magic light - everything looks flat. And the list goes on and on. That’s why you are here looking for new options, right?

If you have a crop sensor DSLR…

You have a great advantage of that extra reach from the 1.6 multiplier of all your lenses. For example, if your lens is 50mm, now you can capture with a 80mm zoom range. This is great for outdoor, nature photos. Plus, crop sensor DSLRs are cheaper, possibly lighter, and easier to carry.

But the drawback is clear: your low light photos are grainy and looks bad, so you pretty much can’t control the outcome for photos taken indoors, or in outdoor environment around sunrise or sunset, or in forest shade. You also find it hard to get tack sharp images. Sometimes the subject is blurry, sometimes the focus is off. There seem to be many reasons why your photos don’t look anywhere like a magazine cover, and you often debate whether you are better off using the smartphone.

if you have a digital point and shoot

Great! You have the compact option in your hand and will be more willing to bring the camera along, and practice often. You seem to have a all-in-one capable camera, with a built-in lens sometimes covering all the way from wide angle to telescope, you soon realize the quality is nowhere as you’d imagined. The pictures are not sharp as a result. You don’t have much control of the settings beyond the basic aperture, shutter speed, ISO etc. Ultimately, the camera sensor is tiny and thus is limited to what the camera can capture.

If you have a full frame camera…

Congratulations! You now have better chance to capture photos in low-light environment. Depending on camera models, you might get more advanced features such as:

Eye auto focus (only in Mirrorless cameras)

An essential feature if you frequently photograph children or animals, subjects with fast and unpredictable movement. Mirrorless cameras these days have improved this feature year after year to an extent that it’s hard to get a wrong focus. This is revolutionary! It was the top reason why I switched from DSLR to mirrorless 5 years ago. It might as well be your top reason too!

Burst Rate - More Frames Per Second

If your main interest is to photograph sports, and again, children, wild animals, sometimes you only have a split second opportunity to capture the best shot. Look into cameras with high frames per second feature. My current few mirrorless cameras shoot 10-20 images per second, although I typically use maximum 2-5 frames per second, as my kids are not in the Olympic track team.

If you have plans to photograph running lions or zebras at an African safari, or you want to capture some exciting moments at a football, basketball or F1 car race, you need high burst rate for sure. However, without a super telescope lens paired with your camera, your subjects will appear as a dot on your frame. We’ll cover lenses in the next tip.

More dynamic range

A camera with higher dynamic range preserves more digital information for highlights and shadows, allowing you to retrieve details from the part of your image that might look overexposed or underexposed during post processing. This is extremely useful for landscape photographers, or parents with newborns or young children who often photograph in low light condition (such as indoors), or someone who enjoys outdoor adventures in forest or jungle etc.

Low Light Performance

A distinctive feature of higher end DSLR cameras. It ties to the dynamic range mentioned above. This gives you more photo opportunities to document your journey and create dream memories, with or without the perfect light condition.

Which camera should you buy?

I often got questions which camera you should buy. Do the following exercise.  Write down the answers to the following questions:

1. What do you want to photograph? eg. kids, pets, mountains or wild animals etc.

2. What light condition, eg. indoor low light or outdoor natural light, would you typically like to use the camera?

3. What budget? Remember camera is one, lens is another (see the next tip about lens). Budget for both to be realistic! Even budget is not an issue, you still want to think about these questions before finding the right camera.

4. Any size or weight concerns? Are you a new mom that has limited space to fit a big camera in your diaper bag? Are you a regular hiker that wants to carry just a small backpack? Are you a street photographer that wants to be more discrete photographing street scenes or strangers?

5. Any compatibility issues with your existing gear? Do you already have a lens collection?

6. Which brand. Do you have a stubborn preference of certain brand? Or your switch cost is too high because of the lens collection I mentioned above.

Canon and Nikon are the biggest DSLR manufacturers, but Sony took the lead a few years ago in the mirrorless technology, although Panasonic was the first inventor. On a global scale of digital camera sales volume, Canon took almost half of the market share, Sony took almost a quarter, Nikon just around 10%, followed by Fujifilm and Panasonic with a combined 10%. DSLR and compact camera sales continued to decline and the gap between mirrorless and DSLR camera sales continued to widen in the last 2 years. Mirrorless camera is a clear trend for the future. Sony and Canon are the two dominant leaders.

I won’t make any recommendation as the choice is totally personal. Check tip 3 where I talk about my favorite websites to research and purchase camera gear.

I’d say once you start to collect lenses, it’s becoming more difficult to switch. I have been a long term Canon user for the past 20 years (from film to digital to mirrorless), I am a very satisfied customer. I currently use both Canon and Sony.

After this exercise, your decision should be easier.

• If budget isn’t an issue, I’d suggest looking into a mirrorless camera, as it is the future trend. Did you know Canon (and more recently Nikon) already announced that they will stop making DSLR cameras? This is huge!

• If your main subjects are kids, pets, wild animals, mirrorless cameras are even more important as many come with eye auto focus feature that traditional DSLRs don’t have

• If you often photograph in low light environment, eg. photograph kids/babies indoors, or outdoor portrait in forest or heavily shaded areas, or astrophotography topics such as milky way, northern lights, a full frame camera is almost a must. They have larger sensors than cropped sensor DSLRs, therefore perform better in low light.

• If you prefer smaller weight and size, a crop sensor mirrorless or DSLR might suit you better, as they are typically smaller and lighter. But bear in mind they don’t perform very well in low light conditions. If you normally photograph your babies, pets, food or restaurant scenes in low light settings and don’t want to carry extra lights, then a full-frame camera might suit you better. Alternatively, you may want to look into a fast lens (to be discussed in tip 2).

The “if” scenarios can go on and on, because everyone has different needs and preferences. If it’s your first DSLR or mirrorless camera choice, it could be a complicated decision. I hope at least the above questions can help guide your research in the right direction. Or check out my free video guide Mirrorless Camera Ultimate Buying Guide which will save you hours, days or even weeks to figure everything out.

Last but not least, without understanding light and camera settings, an advanced camera will NOT guarantee you better photos.

Go back to Camera Equipment Chapter

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